Already half a year ...

My baby is 6 months old today, y'all!  This is so exciting and a little sad all at the same time.  It seems like just yesterday that my amazing husband was coaching me through bringing our first little one into the world.  We labored as a team, as a family, and honestly we didn't even look to see what the sex was for the first 5 minutes.  We didn't care.  We had a happy, healthy baby that was wide-eyed and alert.  We had a little pink baby that was staring into our eyes like he knew exactly who we were.  We had someone that now relied upon us for everything.  Someone that we made.  Someone that we loved more than we ever thought possible.

Now that little someone is 6 months old.  He has his own personality.  He's mobile.  He eats like a champ. He cries when we aren't doing what he wants us to do.  He runs the house.  He listens to Muck Sticky "Feel so Good" AT LEAST once a day.  He loves going out to eat Japanese and will drink half a bowl of miso soup by himself.  He sleeps sideways in the bed, now at the very end so he has his own space.  He nurses for comfort but prefers real food to milk.  He loves his Memphis pup.  He can grab anything and everything in sight.  He hits his toys on EVERYTHING.  He is 100% boy.  His little blonde hair is finally growing in.  His eyes are the most amazing gray-blue I've seen.  He loves momma.  He and daddy have a schedule and he gets upset if momma messes that up.  He loves swimming in the bath tub.  He hates to be sitting still.  He loves ice cream.  He uses the potty more than his diapers.  He's so healthy.  He's freakin' strong.  He was such a big boy when mom was out of town for the week.  He loves being worn, still.  He has routines.  He loves his bink, but is a big boy and can sleep without it.  He hasn't tried a food he doesn't like.  He loves being in the gym with dad.  He would stay outside all day if we let him.  He has the biggest smile.  He goes to sleep so easily.

We are lucky.  We are thankful.  We could stare at him all day.  We are IN LOVE.

A-man,

Happy 6 months, sweet boy.  Mom and Dad love you more than you will probably ever understand.  We want nothing but the best for you and hope you always know how important you are to us.  Thank you for being YOU and always remember that is most important.  We will always be here to support you in whatever path you take in life.  You are the most amazing thing that's ever happened to us and we can't wait to watch you teach your little brother/sister to be as amazing as you are.  We are very thankful to be your parents.  We love you so, so much.



PS:  We are totally saving up for a nice camera so we can get more pictures of our boy.  He's too cute for grainy iPhone pictures.  Merry Christmas to us?!? Fingers crossed.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm not MIA ...

I spent this last week on a business trip and that's why I haven't updated! My company is absolutely amazing and sends all new managers for a week training where basically you get to pick the brain of a very successful manager and if you are lucky, you spend the week with another new manager too. We spend the entire week talking about things like accountability, feedback, creating a great store environment, motivating your team, and all those other fun leadership concepts most new managers struggle with. I now have a battle buddy and an amazing support leader to call when I'm having a hard time being the manager instead of the friend. It was truly eye-opening and I am so thankful I work for a company that is so invested in our growth.

I'm home now though and snuggling on my boys. It was my first week away from the A-man and I did surprisingly well. I think that because dad is always home with him and he's in his own space, it doesn't really bother me to be away. I'm so happy that we have this set-up and my husband is a WONDERFUL stay-at-home dad. He loves it and I love him for it.

I also have some really good news: My blog won its first award!!! Yay!! :)

 HEATHER AT A YOUNG WIFE'S TALE AWARDED ME THE LIEBSTER AWARD. THE LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD IS GIVEN TO UP AND COMING BLOGGERS WHO HAVE LESS THAN 200 FOLLOWERS. LIEBSTER IS A GERMAN WORD MEANING DEAR, SWEET, KIND, NICE, GOOD, BELOVED, LOVELY, KINDLY, PLEASANT, VALUED, CUTE, ENDEARING AND WELCOME.

To keep this award going and pass it along to other new deserving blogs, the recipient must now recognize five other bloggers with less than 200 followers that have really stood out in the crowd.

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love too!

So first thing is first: Heather, thank you so much. You are the sweetest thing ever and I'm very blessed that it was you that gave me my first award. For those of you who don't know Heather, she's a new mom living in the UK with her gorgeous family. Milo is the cutest little girl like EVER, and man, you should see her hair. They cloth diaper, breastfeed, practice baby led weaning, and blog their day to day life living away from their family. Her blog is FULL of the most adorable pictures that will always put a smile on your face. We've been friends since high school and toss opinions around now that we are mommies. I so wish we lived closer so Milo and A could be friends! Check her out, she's great.

Now for the new shout outs:

[Dawn's blog is all about her Paleo Pregnancy journey. It's nice to have another person out there going through the same things and trying to eat Paleo as well. She's due any day now so we get to welcome a new Cave baby! Everyone follow her journey and get ready to squeal over new baby posts.]

[CJ, or Carly is a sweet little Texas girl who married a British-born, Cali-raised boy. They are about to about to have not one, but two babies!! CJ has the cutest style and her pictures are so cute. Her posts consist of cute fashion ideas as well as her pregnant with twins stories. More power to you, sister! Plus, being from the South myself, I love the pictures of their big truck!]

[Jennifer is young. She's funky. She's cute. She has tattoos. Her daughters name is Olive. She gave birth to her at home. Seriously, I think I have a mom crush. Or maybe we should just be BFF. Haha]

[Lindsey is on of my best friends. Drew Needs Rest is her blog where she talks about the loss of her first son, our sweet angel Andrew, and her brand new baby, Thomas. Like brand new, brand new. A few days old. He's adorable and she is the BEST mom in the world.]

[Judah is the cutest little boy ever and loves to take pictures with mustaches AND wigs. Need I say more?]

So there you have it. Everyone give these amazing ladies some love and lets grow our blogging communities! 

E.C. WIN!!!

So ever since A was about 3 or 4 weeks old, we have been practicing elimination communication.  Basically, we watch for his potty cues (after naps, after meals, etc.) and then sit him on the potty rather than just letting him go in his diaper and changing him.  From the very beginning he's done really well.  As soon as we sit him down he goes.  This is awesome in itself, but what's even more awesome?

A HAS STARTED COMMUNICATING!

A few days ago, my sweet baby started doing this fake cough.  It's the cutest/slightly annoying noise and we just attributed it to him learning to make more sounds.  When analyzing it further, he goes crazy during diaper changes.  We started taking him to the potty when he does this and what do you know, he goes every time.  Now, he's just started doing it randomly during the day so dad takes him to the potty whenever he makes this noise.  Again, he's either poop'ed or pee'ed (TMI, I know.  I'm totally being THAT mom.) every single time we take him.

My 5 1/2 month old is letting us know he needs to potty.  I'm so stinkin' proud.

T.V. Shmeevee

The husband and I have always been big television buffs.  We had our shows that we watched together every single week and Tuesday nights were "our night".   I would drive two hours after work to order pizza, drink some bud light, and veg-out in front of our beautiful 60" Sony.  We watched WAY TOO MUCH:  House, The unit, American Idol, Lost, 24, Family Guy, The Cleveland show, Lie to Me, The Mentalist, Fringe ... the list goes on and on.  Seriously, we loved t.v. and HATED to sell our 60" before we moved.  There are some days I really, really miss it.

When we made the decision to commit to a healthier lifestyle, we also decided to cut back on the amount of shows we watch as well.  We have our few "must watches" and indulge in these.  We even sold our smaller t.v. as well and just use our laptops.

These are some of our staples:

[We've never missed an episode.  So good]

[Oh, Jax Teller.]

[Funniest show ever.  Seriously, watch it.]

[This is our only reality show.  The competitions are great.  The weapons are awesome.]

[We had to watch the first episode of the season to see how it was without Michael.  Surprisingly, I like it better.]

[The Husband recently got hooked on Dexter.  I don't really watch it but he loves it.]

[Of course.]

So, we don't watch a ton so these shows have proven to be our absolute favorites.  I love cuddling up with my man and watching t.v. just like we used to do when we were first dating.  Now, its just not 80 million hours a week of it.

Tradition Tuesday

One of the things I love most about having a baby is starting our own traditions.  Most people automatically go to holiday (Totally got my holiday binder in at work today.  Christmas already?!?!) when they think of traditions, but even the little day to day things are so exciting to me.  Most people just think of these as setting a routine, but I'm not talking about:

6:00 pm - dinner
6:30 pm - bath
7:00 pm - bed

I'm talking about the fun little things that make our family unique.  Some of these include ...

-Waking A up in the morning.  He almost always wakes to nurse around 5 and then goes back to sleep while I get in the shower.  I keep him in bed until I get my hair dried and all that fun stuff and then I go wake up the sleeping babe.  It ALWAYS starts with the biggest smile.  What a way to start your day!
-Listening to "Feel so good" by Muck Sticky.  This is A's go-to song when he gets fussy.  He loves the video and even loves me singing "Oh baby Archer, you just make me feel so good.  Oooohhh yeah.".
-Trips to the post office with dad.  Sometime during the day they walk down to our neighborhood post office.  They go and talk to the mail lady and A loves being outside with dad and Memphis.
-Ice cream Tuesdays (and Saturdays).  We have some great friends that make local, homemade, organic ice cream for the growers and farmers market.  We make it a point to get some almost every week.  A has started recognizing the words "ice cream" and smiles.  He loves Keith and Mandy and loves their ice cream even more.
-Bedtime.  A will only go to sleep laying sideways in the bed if we aren't in there with him.  Dad takes him to our bed, puts him sideways, turns on his babysoothe app on the iPhone, and he's out.  He gets so happy to be in bed.  Although, we aren't sure if he goes straight to sleep or just likes to chill by himself for a while.  Either way, I'm cool with it.
-This one is kind of dumb, but I love it nonetheless.  If A is in "the cave" before I turn the light on, I have to say "bright light, bright light, bright light".  I say it in this weird voice and he loves it.  I even caught dad doing it the other day, just not in the weird voice.  He's the practical one.

These things make my day.  I cannot wait to start the bigger traditions and holiday traditions too.  That's what I remember most about my childhood.  We have a candy cane countdown that we always hung up in December.  My sister and I currently fight over who will get it one day.  I think I'm going to make one, because its still important that my baby sisters have while they're growing up.  Christmas eve, ever since my baby sisters were big enough to really enjoy the Christmas magic, we go outside and pour reindeer food in the driveway.  Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, my grannie makes ME my strawberry cake.  Since I was a little girl, grandma ALWAYS gave us a big bag of m&m's in our stockings.  Every Easter, we eat probably a BAJILLION bags of Reese's eggs, they have to be out of the fridge though.  At bedtime, my 2nd baby sister and I had a secret handshake...she couldn't go to bed unless we went through the entire thing.

There's so many things and those are the moments that mean the most.  The ones that as I type, I smile and even get a little teary eyed.  That's what life is about.

What things are you starting with your little ones?  What was your favorite tradition as a child?  What are some of the fun, little things that make your family unique?

Someone needs to say it ...

How freakin' cute are ALL THREE of the guys in Foster the People?!?!

So we all love "Pumped up kicks", which by the way has been out for over a year.  I get sort of snobby when a song I liked a long time ago becomes popular.  I like it before it was  played EVERYWHERE!

... snobby rant over

But seriously!?!? These guys are super cute.  I should have looked their images up a long time ago.


swoon

Wish list ... for A

So since A-man has been waking up super early wanting to play/look at himself in the mirror (he is his fathers son) on his play mat, mom just cruises through the interwebs. Mostly I'm a sucker for things for him, because lets face it, baby things are so much cuter.  Here's a few of the items I'm currently debating on purchasing for the little guy.

[Every baby with a Crossfit Endurance trainer dad NEEDS a cute kettlebell]

[Super cute diaper covers from Rock-a-bye Booty]

[Paleo baby needs to represent]

[Cute monster hat for winter]

[My first bacon plushie]

[This is more of a need.  Seriously, any boy of mine must have a 3 button velvet blazer.  No exceptions.]

[Chili Pepper for Halloween?]

[Another must ... Bowties]

[Dino blocks]

[Initial cape]

Ok, I need to stop. I could seriously find the cutest little boy stuff all day long if I could. But, its nap time and I have a bucket full of diapers that need to be washed. And coffee to drink. And breakfast to cook. And a movie to watch. And laundry to do. And a bedroom to clean. Aaanndd...


Oh, forget it. Back to Etsy :)

Momma's got a sweet tooth.

I've always had a sweet tooth.  I love deserts and desert drinks.  I love chocolate.  I love ice cream.  I love cookies, brownies, you name it.

The husband is an amazing cook and is the main chef in our house.  If I'm feeling froggy I'll let him have a night off, but usually you can't find me in the kitchen.  Unless I'm baking.

I LOVE PALEO BAKING!!

Right now, I'm in the middle of Paleo fudge brownies.  Let me tell you,  the last two times I've made these, they've turned out divine.  Easily the best brownie I've ever had.  Even though they are grain-free AND dairy-free, they are the most fudgy, chocolaty, moist brownies.  Instead of making a huge pan of sweets, I use a muffin pan greased with coconut oil to make 12 brownies for the week ... or couple of days.  These are great right out of the oven, but don't lose any credibility after sitting out.


2 cups of almond butter -We make our own, which is super easy.  Just throw almonds in the food processor and watch until its peanut butter consistency. If you are allergic to nuts, you could use sunbutter.
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 TB vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder (We used the Hershey's special dark)
2 eggs - If you don't do eggs, ground flax seed might serve as a good binder.  
Enjoy life chocolate chips (optional)


1.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Line your cupcake pan with coconut oil and set aside.  You could use baking cups but you don't get the crispy brownie edge.  You could also probably make these in a 9x13 pan, but again we like the individual portions.


2.  Mix together your almond butter, eggs, and maple syrup.  I do all of mine by hand so just play around with the speed on your mixer if you use one.


3.  Fold in the vanilla, baking soda, salt.  


4.  Add cocoa powder.  Don't just dump it in there.  The powder is so light it will go all over the kitchen.  Add a little at a time, or mix slow.


5.  Add chocolate chips.  Some other tasty add ins might include: coconut, fruit, or even espresso powder.


6.  Pour into muffin pan.  It's easier to get them roughly the same size if you use an ice cream scoop.


7.  Bake 20-30 minutes.  I take them out at 20 because I like them a little gooey in the center.  If you prefer a more cake-like brownie, leave them in a little longer.

Enjoy ... they are all three of our favorites.

PS:  It seems that the new baby enjoys them as well.  Momma is happy :)

Struggling mom

Archer, could you please do this again? Please!?! Mom would really appreciate it if you would just sleep.

So we are cutting our first tooth, finally. It seems as if sweet baby A has been teething since about two months old, and we actually have a little white bud poking through on the bottom. This is so exciting because baby teeth are stinkin' cute, but oh man am I tired. Between the pregnancy exhaustion and Archer's evil twin, mom is NOT sleeping more than an hour at a time. I'm tired. #wwhhhiiinnnnnneeee Ok, all whining aside, everything isn't that bad. A is a great sleeper for the most part so I know this too shall pass.

Onto baby #2. Everyone has questions and we still haven't been to see our wonderful midwife yet. Honestly, we don't see the rush. We have our prenatals and I'm feeling pretty confident that I know what I'm doing. But I'll try and just answer the most common questions I'm getting right now ...

1. How far along are you? I'm not 100% sure with this baby like I was with Archer, but I'm guessing right around 4-6 weeks. Another reason I'm not rushing to the midwife. We can't do much yet so it's kind of pointless.

2. Do you want a boy or a girl this time? Everyone is saying that we need a girl, but I honestly feel like its a boy again. I feel like I'll end up with a house full of 'em and I'm ok with that.

3. Are you going to do everything the same? I'm going to absolutely try. We had a very successful pregnancy and an amazing birth with A and I wouldn't change it for any reason at all. We'll still go with a water birth, at home, with my husband doing most of the coaching. The only thing I might play around with is different positions during labor. The majority of my contractions with A were spent on the couch with Memphis because that's where I felt most comfortable. It's a proven fact that moving around during labor helps most women so if I can eliminate some of the contraction pain, I'll definitely try.

4. How are you feeling? I'm great actually. I have some food aversions every now and then but it seems more manageable this time around. Another plus from the Paleo, maybe? So far, onions are the only thing I'm just "absolutely not" eating. They don't taste like onions right now. Blech.

5. Was this baby a surprise? Yes and no. With Archer, we were actively trying to get pregnant. We were charting and following all the fertility signs. We got pregnant exactly when we thought we would, and I went into labor on the exact day I had said since the very beginning. With this baby, it's not like we were actively trying or not trying. We knew we wanted them close together for development purposes and just to be close in age, but we could never decide on how close. Honestly, we didn't think we could get pregnant yet. I'm still nursing A all the time and only 2% of women ovulate before their period comes back. Guess who's in that 2%?!? So its a little different because we don't have all the data like we did with A-man, but we are glad nature made the decision for us on how close they would be.

6. Are you excited or freaking out? Oh, definitely excited. There is not a single, tiny part of me that is nervous or freaking out. I'm very confident in my body with pregnancy and birth. Quite frankly, I feel like I rock at producing kids. We are totally prepared for another one, and have already settled back into the pregnancy life. Now we just have to enjoy the journey. This is a completely different baby and might be a different experience all together.

At least you get to somewhat share with us ... Yay for blogs.

BIG news

We're expecting another baby :)

Our family is beyond excited to welcome another sweet little one. We aren't exactly sure how far along we are as we haven't seen our midwife, but we are happy to be able to blog this pregnancy.

Smiles all around!!

The ABC's of Sam

Who doesn't love answering lots of questions about yourself. We know we all were guilty of posting at least 18,000 myspace bulletins that probably said the same thing over and over. Well, I miss those and since I can blog about whatever I want, today its about me :)

A. Age: 25.

B. Bed size: Queen. Although, we're really hoping to upgrade to a California king since we have a family bed.

C. Chore that you hate: Dishes. I'm terrible at them.

D. Dogs: Memphis pup is a huge part of our family.

E. Essential start to your day: Waking sweet baby A up. He is SO happy and alert in the mornings. Those smiles are my absolute favorite.

F. Favorite color: It changes frequently. I'm a big fan of basic black and white though.

G. Gold or Silver: Silver.

H. Height: 5'4"

I. Instruments you play: I've dabbled in a little of everything. Piano, clarinet, recorder ... but I play none of these well.

J. Job title: Retail store manager.

K. Kids: Just baby A ... for now.

L. Live: Idaho.

M. Mother’s name: Tina.

N. Nicknames: Mom, Mimi, Samowen, Sammy-Sam, B.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Never, I don't think. Maybe once when I was little and super dehydrated.

P. Pet peeves: When people blatantly copy me.

Q. Quote from a movie: "I don't even know what the f*** a quail is."

R. Right or left handed: Right.

S. Siblings: Kelsey, Luke, Remington, Delaney, and Teagan.

U. Underwear: I like the hipster ones.

V. Vegetable you hate: I don't think I hate any right now. Paleo will do that to you.

W. What makes you run late: I'd like to say its being a good mom and doing things around the house, but mostly, facebook.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Just dental.

Y. Yummy food that you make: I make some awesome Paleo baked goods. Brownies, coconut cookies, bacon muffins ...

Z. Zoo animal: Flamingos :)